Field
The present invention relates to systems and methods for identifying loads on fuses of vehicles using a model of the vehicle and, more particularly, for identifying individual and total loads on fuses that are connected to multiple loads from multiple sub-models of the vehicle.
Description of the Related Art
Vehicle engineers and designers (“users”) are increasingly utilizing technological advances to incorporate new capabilities and features into vehicles. For example, electronic control units (ECUs) can control many functions of a vehicle from ignition of engine cylinders and control of transmissions to control of vehicle telematics and infotainment systems. The increase in the use of technology results in more complicated electronic and power systems designs for vehicles. For example, vehicle electronic systems designed 30 years ago may have only included one or two ECUs whereas vehicle electronic systems designed today may include 50 or more ECUs. As the number of electronic devices used in vehicles increases, the complexity of designing power systems to provide power to the electronic devices also increases.
Power systems of vehicles typically include fuses for protecting the electronic components from power surges. As vehicles include more and more electronics, more fuses are typically required to provide adequate protection against power surges. However, there is a desire to keep the quantity of fuses in any vehicle to a minimum due to costs and ease of replacement. More specifically, each additional fuse used in a vehicle has a monetary cost. Because some vehicle designers and manufacturers can sell hundreds of thousands of vehicles within a particular line, each additional fuse included in a vehicle design can cost the manufacturer millions of dollars. Furthermore, complexity of identifying the location of a blown fuse can increase as the number of fuses in a vehicle fuse box increases.
Users typically design a model of a vehicle electronic system using modeling software prior to manufacturing the system. The model can be used for designing and testing various sub-systems of the vehicle electronic system. Because of the complexity of vehicle electronic systems, the model may include various sub-models each including a portion of the entire model.
However, including sub-models presents difficulty in tracing all connection points of a component, such as a fuse, especially if the fuse has a first load within a first sub-model and a second load within a second sub-model. When modifying a model of vehicle electronic systems, a user may desire to modify or add loads to one or more fuses.
Prior to computer-implemented models, users would draw a schematic on a large sheet of paper by hand. In order to determine which loads were connected to any given fuse, the user could simply trace the connections to the fuse. However, when a fuse in a computer-implemented model is connected to loads in two or more sub-models, a user cannot simply trace the connections to the fuse.
Thus, there is a need in the art for methods and systems that can determine the total and individual loads applied to each fuse used in a vehicle model.